


Reunion

by ryfkah



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-02-27
Updated: 2011-02-27
Packaged: 2017-10-15 23:41:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,005
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/166100
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ryfkah/pseuds/ryfkah
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mai doesn’t say, <i>how could you do this</i>. No one who had traveled with Azula would have to ask.  She says, “You know lots of people are probably going to die now.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Reunion

When Mai turns around, she is not particularly surprised to see Ty Lee perched on her windowsill.

“Hi, Mai! It’s so good to see you!” As usual, Ty Lee manages the most enthusiastic whispers that Mai has ever heard. She bounds off the windowsill into the room. Mai catalogs: bright smile, anxious eyes, deep worry line between carefully shaped brows, Fire Nation guard’s uniform, and takes a step back, evading her outstretched arms.

It’s not that she would especially mind a hug from Ty Lee right now. She wouldn’t actually mind at all. And she doesn’t think Ty Lee would take advantage of the moment to block her chi, not yet – Ty Lee has certain priorities, and hugs are near the top of them – but they’ve all grown older and smarter now, and it’s a risk she doesn’t want to take.

She knows her face is composed. She says, “I figured you’d come when you heard about the rebellion. But you’re not going to stop me.”

Ty Lee does not say, _you couldn’t_ or _you wouldn’t_. No one who had traveled with Azula would. Ty Lee is here because she knows exactly what Mai can and will do. “Um,” Ty Lee says. The chipmunk-fly smile fades from her face, leaving it thinner and older. “Yes, I am. I’m sorry.”

“She tried to kill me.” Ty Lee has a tendency to assume things are about emotion, because that’s how Ty Lee works. Mai doesn’t want Ty Lee to think this is about emotion – though that’s probably a lost cause –and so she keeps this statement very flat. “She tried to kill Zuko.”

“I know,” Ty Lee says.

“She probably tried to kill you when you snuck in to visit her, didn’t she?”

Ty Lee stares down, carefully placing one slippered foot on the inside of her opposite knee. Of course Azula isn’t allowed to have any visitors, but it’s not like those little details stop Ty Lee. “She’s just – really upset right now.”

Mai almost laughs. Instead, she says, “As long as she’s alive for people to form plans around, we’re not ever actually going to have peace. I mean, you know that, right? This _is_ the Fire Nation.”

“I don’t care about that,” Ty Lee says, unabashed, and looks across at her. “And neither do you.”

“No,” Mai agrees. She doesn’t care about the Fire Nation. They have this much in common, Mai and Ty Lee: neither of them care about very much. What most people don’t understand is that when you’ve only got a very small set of things that you care about, you end up caring about those things kind of a lot.

Azula isn’t included in Mai’s set of things, not anymore.

Almost entirely not.

They stare at each other for a while. Mai is positive Ty Lee will be the one to break it, but finally, to her own surprise, she’s the one who speaks: “Zuko won’t do it. So I have to. I’m sorry.”

“Because Zuko’s not _dead inside_!” says Ty Lee, and abruptly bursts into tears – a weapon that only Ty Lee, of the three of them, ever really learned how to use.

It hurts more than it should. Bizarrely, Mai thinks: we’re not even on Ember Island. “Yeah, well,” she says. “That’s why he needs me around.”

She doesn’t need to check to make sure she’s got all her knives in her sleeves. She’s already made all her preparations, and there’s no more reason to tarry. She doesn’t turn around to look at Ty Lee, but she’s prepared to fend off one of her dancing chi-bending attacks, if one comes.

But it doesn’t come.

She should be more surprised when she gets there and finds herself having to step over unconscious guards. Once Ty Lee would have just immobilized them, but it seems she's being more cautious these days, too.

Mai has knives already in both of her hands, in case they are waiting for her together, but when she walks to the end of the hallway she sees it is only Ty Lee, alone, and lets them slip back into her wrist sheaths. The end of Ty Lee’s braid is singed, and so is one of her sleeves; it’s hard to see how badly she’s burned under it. The rational Azula, in such a position, would not have done this to someone who could be used as an ally. But Azula is not rational, not anymore.

“Zuko can’t do anything to me, because I’m an Earth Nation citizen now,” Ty Lee tells her.

Mai doesn’t say, _how could you do this_. No one who had traveled with Azula would have to ask. She feels very calm. She says, “You know lots of people are probably going to die now.”

“I know,” Ty Lee says. She’s still crying. The pink around her eyes clashes with the red of her stolen uniform.

Mai reaches into her left sleeve with her right hand. She sees Ty Lee tense, but all Mai does is offer her a black handkerchief. “Don’t be an idiot,” she says. “I won’t tell anyone.” Nobody will doubt that Azula could have escaped on her own. People are always escaping from Fire Nation prisons – which is, of course, one of the reasons that Mai is here to begin with. They’ll have to do something about the guards on duty, of course. But Mai thinks they can take care of that.

People are motivated by the subset of things that they care about. Mai and Ty Lee’s subsets don’t entirely overlap these days, but she knows Ty Lee too well to judge her for that.

“Oh,” Ty Lee says. She mops her eyes and then blows her nose, loudly, and then, still clinging to the handkerchief, throws herself at Mai.

This time, Mai doesn’t step back.

Mai’s not a very good hugger, but she has practice with Ty Lee, and anyway, hugs are another Ty Lee specialty; the force of her arms makes up for whatever Mai lacks.


End file.
